June 27, 2008. Amitabh Bachchan
is set to play the legendary emperor Ashoka in a movie to be co-produced
by AB Corp.

The Bachchans have begun
a new chapter by tying up with Anil Ambani’s Reliance group to form a joint
film production company. Many directors have already been signed for several
projects, and among them is Chandraprakash Dwivedi , who directed Pinjar
.Dwivedi has incidentally
been working on a project for about a decade. It is the story of relationship
between king Ashoka and his son Kunal.

Kunal was blinded at a young
age and left his father’s kingdom. After many years he returned and demanded
his son Sampriti to be made the successor.

Dwivedi says when he conceived
the idea of making the film about a decade ago, he thought of none other
than Mr. Bachchan to play the role of an aged emperor Ashoka.

And now that Dwivedi has
been signed to make a film for the Bachchans, the director is reviving
the yet-untitled project.

Big B is almost finalized
for the part, but the superstar still has to give his final nod.

Dwivedi is also in talks
with Jaya Bachchan to play king Ashoka’s wife.Dwivedi who has written
and script as well as the screenplay for the untitled film, says, “The
story is a legend based on a collection of Buddhist texts called the Avadanas
which deals with the purification of the soul and mind.

Dwivedi chanced upon the
story when he was working on his TV series Chanakya. “The story fascinated
me as it dwelt on the strange yet loving relationship between father and
son. Kunal was born a year before the Kalinga war. There is no detailed
account of what actually happened.